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TWO SERMONS 



KIND TREATMENT 



AND ON THE 



EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES 

PREACHED AT MOBILE, 

On Siiiulay the lOtli, and Sunday the 17th of May, 1810. 

WITH A PREFATORY STATEMENT. 



A. " 



•^ ^ .)^ 



BY GEO. F. SIMMONS. 



oi WAS>n> 



BOSTON: 

WILLIAM CROSBY AND COMPANY. 
1840. 



BOSTON : 

FRISTED BY PRENTISS AND JONES 

nEVOiNSHIRE STREET. 



^ PREFACE 

V 



C; 



It will immediately be perceived that the fol- 
lowing sermons contain many arguments which have 
been more ably advanced in other writings, and 
that, considered separately from the occasion, there is 
little in them to detain the attention of one who has 
attended to the subject before. They were meant for 
the benefit of the people to whom they were addressed ; 
and for no other purpose. 

In Mobile, Slavery was not to me an abstraction. 
Here were the slaves about me. I was served by them 
at home, and at the houses of my friends ; and the re- 
lation between them and their masters seemed, and 
still seems to me, as much within the scope of Relig- 
ious instruction, as the relation between husbands and 
wives, or between parents and children. Had 1 been 
silent on the subject, my silence would have been con- 
strued into assent to things as they were ; and the du- 
ty in this relation was too difficult a matter to be en- 
forced with sufficient fulness and solemnity in private. 
That a man's influence is small is no reason that it 
should not be well used. The best of us do but little 



IV 



good in the world ; and there is no conceit in attempt- 
ing to effect that little. In my judgment, it is by a 
myriad of minute influences, such as I attempted to 
exert in the following discourses, that the minds of our 
southern citizens are finally to be rightly turned on the 
subject of their great interest. 

Accordingly, without any undiscriminating zeal, I 
had, after a practical and sympathizing view of the actu- 
al state of things, foreseen that I must grapple with this 
rugged question ; and indeed, at the beginning of the 
winter, in a letter written to the Trustees of the Soci- 
ety, replying to a request on their part that I should 
become their permanent pastor, I used the following 
language, which, I will add, is all that the letter con- 
tains on that subject. 

" Moreover, were 1 ready to settle, the state of the public mind 
here with regard to slavery, would, I fear, not tolerate my presence. 
Believing, as I do, that slavery is wrong, and that man cannot hold 
property in man, the occasion calling for the expression of these 
opinions, could not long fail of presenting itself, especially in the 
exposition of those passages of Scripture, which condemn or which 
are thought to favor, the depression of a portion of the race into 
the condition of involuntary servants. On such occasions, I should 
preach what 1 believe to be the truth, with the utmost openness, 
and thereby draw public odium upon myself and upon the church. 
This result you would greatly deprecate. 

" Nevertheless, were good of peculiar magnitude to be accom- 
plished thereby, I should not hesitate to expose myself to whatever 
peril there might be from this quarter. But &c. &-c." 

Coming finally to the conclusion that, on the whole, 
and notwithstanding its dangers, the subject ought to 
be treated by me, I deferred the execution of the duty, 
from the natural reluctance one feels to undertake a 
difficult and disagreeable task, from the desire of offer- 
ing my maturest thoughts, and finally with the hope 
that the longer I should have stood in the pulpit and as- 
sociated with the people, the more kindly they might 



receive, what I could not hope they would fully ap- 
prove. 

The first sermon I knew would be heard content- 
edly ; and it was. The second also was listened to 
w ith attention and respect, although one person left the 
church. 

The statements, that remonstrances were used with 
me after the first Sabbath, against treating the subject 
a second time; that on Sunday morning, the 17th, the 
church was crowded, in expectancy ; and that in the 
evening the people expressed their disapprobation by a 
very small attendance, are all equally and wholly erro- 
neous. On the morning of the second Sabbath, the 
congregation was no larger than usual ; in the evening 
it was no smaller than usual, in similar states of weath- 
er ; and during the week previous, unless my memory 
betrays me, no remonstrances were used against a con- 
tinuance of the discussion, for no continuance was ap- 
prehended. In fact the first discourse was well re- 
ceived. Large slaveholders from the country, as well 
as those who belonged to my own people, said " it was 
all true and all needed ;" and had the matter rested at 
this stage, the excitement would not have arisen. In 
the interval, I did not seek advice from my friends ; 
because I already knew their opinions, and because I 
was unwilling to implicate them in the offence, by ren- 
dering them chargeable with having permitted it. 
Thus the second sermon was unexpected by the peo- 
ple, although necessary to the completion of my design. 

What I had not calculated, was the effect of rumor 
on those who did not hear me, and the use political par- 
tizans might make of the occurrence. 

On Monday morning I was accused before the 



VI 



Grand Jury, who, after examining many witnesses, 
dismissed the complaint. I awaited their decision, and 
did not quit the place, until it was supposed to be final. 

On Monday, friends waited on me, solicitous for 
my welfare and for the public peace. It was thought 
advisable that I should withdraw from the immediate 
presence of the multitude. That night 1 passed with- 
out the city. The next day the irritation was said to 
be increasing ; and the knowledge that the Grand Jury 
was not about to act, disposed some individuals still 
more, to do me violence. It became the unanimous 
opinion of my advisers, that I had better go away. Ac- 
cordingly the next night I went aboard a packet which 
lay at anchor in the harbor, where I remained until she 
sailed on the following Friday. From this retreat, I 
addressed a letter to a gentleman who had threatened 
to commit an assault upon me. He has seen fit to pub- 
lish that letter, with a confession of the intended out- 
rage. 

The conduct of my friends in the whole affair had 
been honorable to them ; the votes of the congregation, 
at a subsequent meeting, although regretful, were grati- 
fying to me as expressive of a continuance of affectionate 
regard ; and I have never felt so much interested in the 
church, or attached to the people, as since my separation 
from them. 

Several circumstances are important to be borne in 
mind to prevent an unfair judgment of that people and 
of their city. 

I was expelled from Mobile, not by the people of 
Mobile, but solely by a cabal in it. 

The animosity did not arise within the church, nor 



Vll 



among those who heard me, but without the church, 
and almost exclusively among those who did not hear me. 

Had I remained, I should have been protected. 
But I did not choose to be protected by the exposure 
of those who had not been consulted for my conduct, 
and if they had been, would have advised against it. 

When I say that I should have been protected, I do 
not mean to allege, that 1 was justified or encouraged. 
I allow with grief, that the determination to suppress 
the discussion, seems to be general and resolute at the 
South. But it is not to be expected that freemen will 
long acquiesce in that determination. 

There are, however, opponents of discussion, whose 
characters enforce respect, and whose position deserves 
to be well considered. They solemnly allege, that ag- 
itation of the question tends to insurrection and bloody 
revolution ; that it threatens not only disaster, but des- 
truction, to the interests both of master and slave ; 
that the consideration of reform must be left entirely 
to those, on whom the heavy responsibility devolves of 
effecting it ; and that, among them, it should be reserved 
for the halls of legislation ; that, if the subject were not 
agitated, the South would prepare for the abandonment 
of slavery ; but that while agitation continues, the pub- 
lic good imposes on them the necessity of stern and silent 
defiance. Such are the opinions of men, who on all 
other subjects are wise, and whose characters are above 
reproach. I respect those opinions ; but I could not 
be persuaded by them ; and at the risk of being charged 
with presumption, I felt called to act otherwise. 

I wish not to be considered as expressing fellowship, 
or entering into alliance of any sort, with Abolitionism 



vni 



in the northern states. Its spirit offends me. When I 
consider with what ease and irresponsibility a zeal in 
that cause is gotten up, and with what vanity and light- 
ness of heart it is often associated, and then turn to the 
unfortunate master, from whom all the sacrifice and all 
the action is to come, and see him disheartened by re- 
proach, and toiling under the difficulties of a question, 
in the solution of which, declamation will avail him 
nought, and abstract principles, unless carried out into 
practical wisdom, can be fruitful of no relief, struggling, 
not undevoutly, with a thousand perplexities, which the 
inhnbitnnt of a free state cannot even comprehend, and 
which cast the unassisted mind into confusion and des- 
pair, I confess that my sympathies are with him. It is 
easy to be an abolitionist ; but it is very difficult to be 
a humane, a judicious, a disinterested, slaveholder. 

I repeat, then, that it was wholly in the interest of 
my southern friends, and with the most affectionate 
fellow-feeling towards them, that it was as identifying 
myself for the time with their society, that I addressed 
to them the discourses which are now published. It 
was there and not here, that I was prompted thus to 
speak. In New-England I should have been silent, or 
have addressed myself to the opponents of slavery, 
with exhortations to moderation and charity. 

The discourses are here printed precisely as they 
were delivered ; and I beg to be judged, not by what 
has been said of me, but by what I have said. 



FIRST SERMON. 



COLOSSIANS IV. 1. 

BIASTERS, GIVE UNTO YOUR SERVANTS THAT WHICH IS JUST AND EQUAL ; 
KNOWING THAT YE ALSO HAVE A MASTER IN HEAVEN. 

In this text by « equal" is meant equitable; and what is 
just and equitable would embrace all that we are required to 
do to our fellow men. My intention, however, is not to con- 
fine myself to the particular phraseology of this passage ; but 
to follow the spirit which is inculcated elsewhere, as well as 
here, in the New Testament, by which Masters are to be 
guided in their conduct toward those who serve them. In the 
epistle to the Ephesians, after mentioning the duties of ser- 
vants to their lords, Paul directs his exhortation to those lords 
themselves, saying " Ye masters, do ye the same things unto 
them, forbearing threatening," showing how the relation is a 
mutual relation, and that, as the inferior is bound to feel a 
genuine, unbought, and sacred attachment to the superior, so 
that superior is bound to look on the inferior with an 
equally true and active affection. And indeed the whole tenor 
of Christianity teaches us the same thing, it being character- 
ized by benevolence, and enjoining that virtue of charity on 
us, as a thing without which all observances are vain ; making 
the sum and substance of our earthly duty to consist in loving 
our neighbor as ourself, and instructing us that our neighbor 



10 

is our fellow-man ; and that, whenever that fellow-man has 
fallen among thieves, or lies a beggar by the road side, or is 
sunk in any manner of distress, that then he has a pecuhar 
claim on our sympathy and aid. 

In enforcing this spirit, tlie example of Christ is peculiarly 
marked. The circumstances of outward condition he disre- 
gards ; and his sympathy is more awakened by the poor ciip- 
ple, and the maniac wandering among the tombs, than by the 
graces and wealth and pomp of those who fill the high pla- 
ces of the earth. In thinking over his life, I do not remember 
but one prominent instance of his having to do with a slave. 
It was at Capernaum, " a certain centurion's servant who was 
sick and ready to die" ; and Jesus restored him by his word; 
nor are we to suppose that it was on the master's account 
alone that he wrought the beneficent miracle ; for his whole life 
showed the Saviour to have a peculiar regard to those who 
were neglected by all others, or who occupied a low place in 
the world's esteem. The centurion is represented to have 
been a man of signal lovehness of character, to whom, there- 
fore, the suffering slave was dear, (for that is the expression, 
" who was dear unto him") and the elders of the Jews inter- 
ceded with Christ in his behalf, " saying, he is worthy for 
whom thou shalt do this ; for he loveth our nation, and he 
hath built us a synagogue" ; he was so humble also that he 
held himself unworthy to receive Christ under his roof, and 
had such faith in him as to believe that nothing more than a 
word was necessary to cause the disease to yield. It was such 
a man that we should expect to find holding a servant dear, 
and seeking his cure with the anxiety which he would have 
felt for a son. 

And again, Paul's letter to Philemon, on returning his fu- 
gitive slave Onesimus, shows the profound affection and esteem 
which he could feel for individuals of that class. So that, be- 
sides the general inculcations of love for our fellow-men, 
the New Testament is not without its particular lessons for 
Masters in relation to laborers dependent on them ; — the spirit 



11 

of which is expressed in the Text, — " Masters, give to your 
servants that which is just and equitable, knowing that ye also 
have a Master in heaven," and justice and equity include all 
that we owe to our fellow-men, include genuine benevolence, 
as well as the payment of debts, or performance of promises. 
We, in this part of America, are distinguished from most 
civilized countries by possessing a servile class ; and this cir- 
cumstance forms our great sorrow and difficulty, bringing with 
it peculiar and almost overwhelming temptations. But there 
can be nothing permanently evil in its results, if we are true 
to ourselves ; for it is a part of our ordained lot ; and God 
ordains nothing in evil. However much our ancestors may 
have erred ; for us, this state of things, being already consti- 
tuted, is to be considered as given us by God ; and from what- 
ever difficulties may accompany it, he will find us a way of 
escape, if we obey him. If we obey him not, all is lost ; our 
peculiar trial will prove our destruction ; we shall become cor- 
rupt, wicked, dead ; we shall inherit w^oe in this world and in 
another. 

Now the condition of the colored class is such as to awaken 
our deep compassion. From how many of our enjoyments 
are they wholly and hopelessly cut off in this life ! Doomed 
to toil for others' benefit more than for their own, and subject- 
ed to the arbitrary will of another whom they do not choose, 
always in the possibility of being sold to strangers, and severed 
from whatever is dearest to them ; they are without country 
and sometimes without home ; they wander like Cain upon the 
earth, without Cain's guilt ; they enter hke Joseph into bonds, 
but without the intelligence of Joseph to support and console 
captivity, and without the remotest hope of rising like him, 
above it. They are born in fetters ; in fetters must they die. 
And they are always in peril of falling (with the changes of 
fortune) into the hands of hard-hearted masters, who inflict 
on them cruelties which have never been surpassed. Add to 
this that, by education, they are almost without those fine feel- 
ings, which are the source of all the bliss we much value, and 



12 

possess but a meagre understanding of Christianity, which 
furnishes the consolations of sorrow, and is the nurse of spir- 
itual pleasure. They are brutish and unaspiring. They enjoy 
but an initiatory, and unsatisfied being, and must look forward 
to another world, even for that height of happiness, which we 
may possess in this. Their indolence and childishness, their 
deceitfulness and perversity, being the natural results of their 
ignorance and of their condition, increase our compassion, rather 
than irritate our tempers ; for we know that our virtues of 
enterprise and industry and veracity, so far as we possess 
them, are not to be claimed by us as merits, but are conse- 
quences of our discipline ; that we are educated to be active, 
as the slave is to be sluggish, and if we have human hearts, 
we pity the poor man the more, that his condition is such as 
to repress the native exuberance of power and of thought, and 
hold him down to a monotony of reluctant drudgery. 

On contemplating then the slave's lot, compassion and in- 
dulgence are the necessary result in every undepraved mind. 
And these are a constituent part of Christian charity ; for pity 
is love for those who are in distress. 

And while we compassionate the slave, we are not to forget 
that he is our brother, although with a colored skin, and with 
faculties less apt ; that he looks forward to the same heavenly 
inheritance as we, and is an equal sharer in the redemption of 
the cross. We are not to forget that in him, all human ca- 
pacities lie, though not yet unfolded ; that in that darkened 
mind are hid the elements of the Imagination which in Milton 
entered Eden and the courts of Heaven, of the Reason which 
with Newton weighed the spheres, of the Religious Faith which 
made Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles, and led him by the 
hand through dangers now unknown ; that in a future state these 
faculties, long pent, may be brought forth into illustrious ac- 
tion. And when we stagger at this contrast, and doubt 
whether our principles do not delude us, we may reflect on the 
great change w^hich has been wrought in us, since we were 
helpless and senseless infants in our nurses' arms, and remind 



13 

ourselves of the fact tliat the inhabitants of the now glorious 
Britain were once regarded by the Romans, as incapable of 
elevation, and fit only to be serfs. 

Yes J on every soul the divine image is stamped, and as the 
soul grows and expands, that likeness is capable of being 
brought forth with glorious and angelic lustre. This world is 
but introductory. At the high dawning of another, despised 
and abused spirits will be found opening into display of facul- 
ties long concealed, as the flower bursts into sudden gloiy 
under the first warmth of the morning. The poor African, 
when he has exchanged the darkened body for the livery of 
the skies, and is enlightened by a sudden access of that knowl- 
edge which was obtained by us below only with painful exer- 
tion, when he is encouraged and lifted up by the sight of the 
Lamb and of the benignant Father of glory, will seem not 
wholly unlike the best of the sons of earth, — will receive 
respect as his right, and happiness as his inheritance. The 
negro is our brother. To be regarded with fraternal feeling is 
therefore his due. We bestow it on him not as a favor, but 
as a debt. 

The obligation on us, then, is very apparent, to treat and 
love him, as a fellow-laborer, and not as a tool ; to seek his 
happiness, and when he is helpless, to make ourselves his guar- 
dian, — to seek his happiness by complying always with the 
demands of justice, by yielding him every thing which is equi- 
table, by endeavoring to mitigate his sufferings, and to make 
his happiness of a continually higher and higher kind, through 
culture of his mind and giving him opportunity of improve- 
ment. If the laws forbid this, they are wicked, and must be 
repealed. 

Thus by kindliness and encouragement in all our treatment 
of them, by increasing their happiness even as they are, and 
still more by attempting to lead them to such refined, and ra- 
tional and elevating happiness as we ourselves would desire, 
are we to show our Christian love toward this portion of the 
race. I know that there are those who will smile at the very 



14 

idea of loving them. " What ! Do you speak of affection as 
possible towards the brutish laborers of our fields and streets, 
towards men who do not even know what a refined thought 
is ? " But those who deem such love impossible, have not yet 
begun to know Christianity. What reward have we, if we 
love only those whom it is instinctive to love, if our love be 
tried by nothing which tends to sever it ? To love our amiable 
and affectionate friends requires no Religion ; it is perfectly 
consistent with a low state of heart ; it is not a virtue, but an 
impulse. But our Christian benevolence is tried, when we 
turn to the unhonored, the ignorant, the repulsive, or those 
with whom our spirits are not congenial. There it will be seen 
whether we have exalted Charity to be the rational principle of 
our whole nature, whether our heart really beats for our fel- 
lows, or only for those who flatter and solace it. Far from 
love being impossible towards our common colored laborers, it 
is the natural emotion in a pure mind, on contemplating their 
condition. We do not see them overworn with toil, or de- 
prived of comfort and hope, or suffering in any way, or on the 
other hand, performing acts of faithfulness and friendship, 
without sympathizing with them, and wishing to relieve them. 
Selfishness and cupidity are stern and severe. But while the 
mind is not excited by passion, nor blinded by interest, nor 
hardened by former guilt, it is not without fellow-feeling for 
the slave. And when taught by Christianity, it puts forth a 
new sympathy, a sympathy far more penetrating and active, a 
heavenly and constant love. 

But some one may here whisper to himself, that I suffer my 
enthusiasm to carry me away, that that love must remain mere- 
ly nominal, so long as there is such a vast distance between us 
and its objects, so long as they are so gross, and ignorant, and 
uncongenial with us ; that this distance is too great for real 
affection. But is the separation so vast ? And does it pre- 
clude the idea of love ? Is not the Eternal Father raised 
infinitely above us ; and are we too low to be reached by his 
affection ? And has the great Christian Idea not yet dawned 



15 

in our minds, that we are to imitate that Father, " to be his 
followers as dear children "? In the sight of God the inequal- 
ities among men sink into comparative insignificance, as the 
hills and vallies of the plain become unnoticeable from the 
mountain-cliff. God never ceases to love us through all our 
folly and perverseness. Our brutish thoughts, our continual 
ingratitude, our indolence, and childish frivolity and passions, 
never drive away his tender providence. Can we do other 
than imitate that long suffering towards those whom he com- 
mands us to bear with and protect ? Does not the knowledge 
of that Universal Father draw us nigh to our least favored 
brethren ? Does not the thought of his universal care make 
mutual kindness an act of devotion ? Does it not confer a 
new dignity on every man ? Shall we despise any for whom 
the Creator wakes the morning and shuts the evening, and 
pours forth his myriad provisions of happiness and use ? Shall 
we despise one who is invited to heaven, and may one day 
wear the crown and wave the palm ? Our common faculties, 
which in none of us are more than in infancy, our common 
hopes which make the felicity of the future outshine and 
eclipse all the advantages of the present, bring all men to 
much the same level, cast superficial distinctions into obscuri- 
ty, and bind us to all by a feeling of companionship. We 
are not indeed to select our associates from those uncongenial 
with us. From the whole human race to which we are bound 
by Religion, we select but a few kindred hearts to be our fa- 
miliar friends. But the excluding circumstance is not so 
much outward as within. The virtuous man has far greater 
aversion for his white brother whom sense and passion have 
brutahzed, than for his colored servant whose character is 
adorned by temperance and purity. 

" Masters, give to your servants that which is just and 
equitable, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." A 
part of your debt to them is a tender interest in their welfare. 
As citizens and as private men, always act for them in this 
spirit. All wicked laws rescind. All unnecessary restraints 



16 

remove. Pity their sufferings and be zealous for their eleva- 
tion. Protect them in their homes. Seek to make their 
domestic relations secure. Be indulgent to them in your 
requisitions ; be ready to pardon, as you hope for pardon 
above. Presume not to make them the mere instruments of 
your comfort and advantage ; but prepare always to ansv^^er 
for your treatment of them, before that Being who is no res- 
pecter of persons ; remembering how great capacities of virtue, 
what elements of moral beauty, of intelligence and compre- 
hensive thought, what germs of celestial glory lie undeveloped 
even in their disregarded minds. By true affection, extended 
to them not as a favor, but as a debt, endeavor to call forth 
within them an answering attachment, so that they may serve 
us, " not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants 
of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will 
doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men," so that the 
burden of bondage may be lightened by a willing spirit, and 
they shall bless God that they were taken from the dark shores 
of Africa, to inhabit among a Christian people, where they may 
learn the divine truth uttered through Jesus, and see it en- 
forced and beautifully exemplified in the character and con- 
duct of their white brethren. Then it will no longer be a 
mystery to us, why a good Father allowed this transportation 
and bondage, and placed us in these distressful straits. We 
are thrown into no straits, from which there do not lead 
paths of duty, guiding us, though over rugged ways, into 
regions of security and sacred satisfaction. Remember that 
the trial of our faith consists in our peculiar temptations ; and 
that it is very evident, where, with us, those peculiar tempta- 
tions lie, that an awful responsibility and peril lie in our rela- 
tion to the colored class, a responsibility and peril which make the 
mind tremble and groan, and that it remains to be seen wheth- 
er Christianity has life enough within us to bear us up and 
carry us through safely, — whether our hearts are to be hard- 
ened like that of Pharaoh, or made tenderly sympathizing and 
self-forgetful like that of Paul and of his crucified Master. 



17 

Already Slavery numbers its victims. In many it has caused 
corruption and debauchery, a hard and hopeless brutality, 
vv^hich nought in this world can cure ; in some of you here 
present it has resulted in a severity and injustice, which in oth- 
er countries would be a wonder ; in most it has given rise to 
a shame of labor, which is disgraceful in men and in republi- 
cans : but in many also it has been the occasion of bringing 
forth a new tenderness of sympathy, a tolerance, a self-sacri- 
fice, a regard for the human mind even when clouded and 
veiled, which will shine illustriously in another world, as they 
afford an enchanting spectacle in this. Make yourselves of 
this latter class. Give to your servants all that regard and af- 
fection, which is their due, which their miseries and vices 
make only the more necessary, and await your reward from 
Him who is alike your Lord and theirs. 



SECOND SERMON. 



I ASK your attention once more to the text which engaged 
our consideration on the morning of the last Sabbath. " Mas- 
ters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal (or 
equitable) ; knowing that ye also have a master in heaven " ; 
and propose to attend still farther to the teachings of Chris- 
tianity concerning our relations with the servile class. 

There are some who object to all mention of the subject in 
public, thinking that it is too exciting to be treated profita- 
bly in any way. But, the more exciting the topic, the more 
important that Religion should pour in its tranquilizing influ- 
ence ; and as our difficulties and straits become more embar- 
rassing, the more solicitous should we be for the guidance 
of divine truth ; which never comes amiss ; which enlightens 
darkness, which calms irritated feeling, which tempers the ex- 
travagance of enthusiasm, and beautifully reconciles the rights 
and true interests of all the children of God. On questions 
of an agitating and doubtful nature, it may sometimes be 
profitable to dissuade the expression of private opinion, of 
the judgments and desires and fears of individual minds ; on 
account of the apprehension that men may be irritated and 
goaded by it. But in the Church it is quite different. Who- 
ever is there excited to anger, when the instructions of Re- 
ligion are faithfully proclaimed, brands himself as an infidel 
and a rebel, he immediately makes himself an outlaw from 



20 

the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and is to be ranked among the 
enemies of the human race. 

The rule which is to guide us in all our relations to our 
fellow men in that which has been called the golden rule : 
" Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them " ; this is declared to be " the law and the 
prophets." This is the spirit of all the social teachings of 
God's Word in the Old and in the New Testaments. This 
is to be our guide in all our actions and all our feelings to- 
wards others. It is not occasional or conditional ; but it is 
universal. It is our Christian duty to aim never to swerve 
from it ; and just in proportion as we do swerve from it, we 
fall under condemnation. 

The meaning of the injunction obviously is, that we should 
do unto others, whatever, in an enlightened view of our in- 
terests and rights we should desire them to do unto us ; not 
whatever we might, in like circumstances, capriciously and 
selfishly desire. For instance, were we very ignorant and 
poor, we might desire that some person of wealth, should 
transfer to us all his property ; but that certainly is not to be 
done by him ; for therein the claims of others who are depen- 
dent on him, and of himself would be disregarded. We are 
to regard and treat others, as it would be right for us to wish 
others to regard and treat us. And while we are disinterested, 
we should also be just and impartial in our benevolence. We 
come back then to the direction of our text, that we are to 
give to our servants that which is just and equitable ; not 
give them whatever they ask, but whatever they would ask if 
they were wise ; to study their true interests ; and to aim to 
promote those interests as we should aim to promote our 
own. If we thoroughly, earnestlv, and without reserve, pur- 
pose to act by these principles, our road will become com- 
paratively plain, many perplexing questions will be immedi- 
ately resolved, and we shall tread confidently and with happy 
anticipations the path of duty. 



21 

When we ventured upon the subject formerly, we con- 
sidered to what sort of treatment of our servants those prin- 
ciples would lead us. I propose now to inquire how those 
principles affect their claim for liberation. 

If it be true, as it is asserted to be, and as I suppose it 
is, that a great part of the colored servants are so accustomed 
to be taken care of, that they cannot take care of them- 
selves, so indolent that they would not labor except urged 
by others, and so improvident that the supplies of tomorrow 
would be left to accident, and whatever they had to-day be 
used for intemperate and vicious indulgence, it is plain that 
we should do very wrong to turn them loose upon the world ; 
for we feel that we, in like circumstances, with our present 
clear views of interest, should supplicate to continue to be 
protected and employed. It would be hke a father turning 
his children at a tender age into the streets. But the inca- 
pacity for freedom, is itself an evil to be deplored and re- 
moved. It is not natural. It cannot be rightly permanent. 
For every man is made to work out his own happiness in 
this world and in another, by the unfettered use of his own 
faculties ; and it is only when made free, that the resources 
of his nature are drawn forth, that in ever new enterpri- 
ses and attempts, animated by all the hopes and spirit of 
liberty, he puts forth those manly powers, which, though un- 
suspected in him before, are hidden in the recesses of every 
human soul. That man is born to be free, is now a proposi- 
tion every where allowed. In our country in particular, it 
has become a familiar axiom. While one is unfit to be trust- 
ed with this birthright, he is but in an infancy of being ; he 
continues in a prolonged boyhood ; he has not yet become a 
man, and the dignity, the happiness, and the hopes of man- 
hood are denied him. That he should be fitted for freedom, 
and made wholly free, becomes then the aim of one who acts 
towards him in the spirit of Christian fraternity. If his own 
safety require that like a child he should, for the present, be 



oo 



constrained; and subject to the will of a master, his constraints 
should be made no greater than are necessary, they should be 
merely temporary, devised for the present exigence ; the idea 
of him and his children being bound forever can never be 
tolerated ; his right being recognised, he must be held merely 
in guardianship, and not as an instrument for our gratification 
or profit ; the relation must be a mutual and fraternal one, in 
which he serves us in return for benefits conferred, and is 
disciplined for his own advancement in intelligence and vir- 
tue and practical capacity. If we doubt about the justice of 
this requirement, then refer to the rule that we are to do unto 
others as we would that they should do unto us, and ask 
ourselves whether we should expect or rightfully demand any 
thing less, were we in that state of servitude. 

Let these few remarks suffice with regard to that portion 
of our colored servants who are not fit to be immediately 
freed from their restraints. There remain another class con- 
sisting of those who are able to take care of themselves, and 
are capable of judging of their own good. In these as in all 
others, the right to liberty remaining unalienated and inalien- 
able, nothing but the strongest considerations of public good 
can authorize its being any longer suspended. Or if insuper- 
able practical difficulties present themselves in the way of leg- 
islation, and emancipation continue to be forbidden by law, 
then the master, holding such an one in his dependence, must 
regard him as a freeman, must give him the fruits of his la- 
bor, must secure him in his domestic rights, must protect him 
from all wrong, and afford him opportunity, while he fives, to 
answer the ends of life, and to prepare to enter another, and 
less oppressive world. Nothing less than this can possibly be 
deduced from the golden rule of Christian morals. Nothing 
less than this can be proposed to you as your duty, except by 
one strangely deluded, or by one who cares more for your 
opinion than for truth. 

The principle on which Slavery is founded is entirely over- 
thrown by the fundamental principle of Christian morality. 



23 

Christianity makes all men our brethren. Slavery makes men 
our tools. And the fallacy of its principle is fully allowed 
here as well as elsewhere. I do not appeal to the majority of 
slaveholders ; because the majority of this class, as well as of 
other classes, is bad, and is not to be trusted to discern and 
confess truth through the cloud of interest ; but I appeal to 
that minority, of magnanimous, honorable, and benevolent 
men, in whom the golden principles of the community are 
treasured up, and who deserve to be considered the voice of 
the community in all questions of justice and equity. They 
allow, the better class among us freely allow, that the princi- 
ple of slavery is wrong, that Christianity requires us to consid- 
er all men our brethren, that each man has his rights, and that 
they cannot be denied him and he be degraded into a thing 
to be possessed for others' good ; they do not claim to own 
their servants as they own their ploughs and their horses ; but 
they own them as they own a wife and children ; hold them 
under their care and direction, for the servants' own prosperi- 
ty and spiritual advantage, by a discipline resulting in mutual 
benefit and happiness. The idea that men can be owned, 
strictly speaking, as property, will find few advocates among 
the good. 

Thus will Christianity eat out the heart of Slavery even 
while Slavery continues. The servitude will not be a grind- 
ing bondage ; but a mutual and fraternal dependence. While 
the outward relation continues the same ; the virtual relation 
will be entirely changed. The servants will be slaves, only in 
the letter of the law ; while in fact they are regarded by their 
Christian master as his wards, and indulged in whatever free- 
dom they can profit by. To feed and clothe them, he will 
deem but a part of his duty ; to teach, to encourage them, to 
make them manly and intelligent, and enlighten them with 
Christian truth, will be a more important responsibility and 
equally incumbent ; and thus, while legislatures are unprepared 
to act ; and philanthropists are afraid to speak ; and a silent 
tolerance continues to brood over an Institution in itself cor- 



24 

rupt, will the pure and irresistible principles of Christianity 
have noiselessly, in many places, destroyed its essence, and left 
only its name and some of its legal constraints. The teachings 
of Cinistianity are practicable, even where the laws do not 
conform to them. They forbid us to make our fellow man an 
instrument for our profit or pleasure. They tell us he is our 
brother. If he be ignorant and oppressed, they tell us to en- 
lighten and deliver him. These teachings may be called 
vague, and abstract, and unpractical ; but the truly good man 
will easily find how to act according to them ; and his whole 
conduct towards the servile class will be governed and sancti- 
fied by their spirit. 

But with these qualifications and mitigations, many find a 
sanction for the existence of the Institution itself, in the alleged 
facts, that it was authorized under the Mosaic dispensation, 
and tolerated under that of Christ. This position deserves to 
be well considered ; that we may decide how far what is al- 
leged, is true ; and then how it bears on us of modern times. 

When Moses was sent to lead and organize the Jewish peo- 
ple, he found Slavery already existing and established ; and the 
laws which he dictated to the Jewish Commonwealth, did 
nothing with regard to it, but limit the power of masters, de- 
fend the bondmen in certain rights, and provide for the liberation 
of some, suffering the existing state of things to continue, only 
mitigated and alleviated. Slavery, such as it exists in our 
country, that is chattel-Slavery, by which the bondman is reck- 
oned as part of the personal property of his master, did not 
exist under the Jewish laws. Their bondmen were of two 
sorts, first Hebrew servants who were to be restored to liberty 
without fail on the year of jubilee, which was every seventh 
year, and might be redeemed at any time previous, by the pay- 
ment of the amount of the wages of a hired servant for what 
remained of the period ; and secondly, servants taken from for- 
eign nations, or children of the strangers dweUing in the land, 
who were bound in perpetuity, and were to be a possession for 



25 

the Jewisli master and for his children forever. But the law 
contains no permission that these should be sold. They were 
vassals of a family ; and with that family they were to remain ; 
a condition more resembling the condition called " Villenage," 
than Slavery as it has been planted in this region of the world. 
For men being bought and sold, held as the mere transferable 
tools of industry, to be driven about hither and thither like 
cattle, as the interests of the master may demand, the Jewish 
laws contain no sanction whatever. All their regulations with 
regard to servants are conceived in quite a different spirit. 
They are provident of the servant's rights. They protect him 
against cruelty. When fleeing from a master of another na- 
tion, they forbid him on any account to be restored. They 
provide for his instruction in the Faith, and reckon him as 
equal with his master before God. 

These differences between Slavery as it exists among us, 
and that authorized by the Jewish law^, are worthy of being 
noticed. From the main fact, however, what inference can be 
drawn? Slavery was permitted by the Mosaic code with 
certain limitations and mitigations. Can that sufferance be 
brought to show its lawfulness among us ? Certainly not. For 
the same mode of argument would make polygamy admissi- 
ble, since this was allowed by the Jewish law and practised by 
the Jewish people. Yet can any be found to maintain on this 
ground, that a man may, without sin, have several wives, if he 
only treat them all with kindness ? The Jewish was an im- 
perfect dispensation, designed for the infancy of the race. We 
have a more perfect law. Nothing is permissible to us, except 
that which, according to Christ, is just. If we would find 
therefore what Revelation approves, we must turn to his word. 

Christianity sought to make no violent revolutions in the 
civil relations of men. Its office was to change the world by 
means of a spiritual influence, a moral regeneration. Had it 
declared freedom to slaves, and taken their part against their 
masters, it would immediately have been obliged to engage in 
4 



26 

an outward conflict. It therefore addresses itself to men in 
whatever condition of life it may find them ; making light of 
outward condition, so the mind be rightly set. " Let every 
man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art 
thou called being a servant, care not for it. But if thou 
mayest be made free, use it rather." But while it thus tolerates 
the servile relation, because incorporated with the constitution 
of society, it eats out its core and saps its foundations by si- 
lently working principles, and prepares its final extinction. 
The servants are exhorted to obey their masters from religious 
motives, not because their service is their masters' right. They 
are to free themselves, if possible ; but otherwise to resign 
themselves to their lot, and to care Uttle for it, since it is out- 
ward and of short duration. Masters are exhorted to give to 
their servants that which is just and equal ; and Philemon is 
besought to receive the fugitive Onesimus, not as a servant, 
but as a brother beloved. In short the great principle of hu- 
man brotherhood and mutual love, struck the fetters from the 
captive's limbs. The Christian gives to others only what he 
would be ready and bound, in like circumstances, to receive. 
He is to make himself the instrument of good to all. Of 
course, he cannot degrade others to be the mere instruments 
of pleasure or gain to him. Their rights as men, their immor- 
tal interests, their Christian hopes take precedence of all things 
else. These are first in his mind, in all his dealings with oth- 
ers. This spirit of Christianity, my friends, must finally cast 
off every yoke. It has done so in all civilized countries ex- 
cept our own ; but no people has been called to so arduous a 
duty as we. We are surrounded by difficulties and dangers 
through which nothing but Religion can ever lead us in safety. 
Let us faithfully cleave to that Heavenly Guide. 

It is not to be controverted that Christianity brought 
no express and direct prohibition of Slavery. As little how- 
ever did it bring an express and direct prohibition of despo- 
tism ; and yet in our times and country, it need not be argued 



27 

that Christianity asserts the hberties of a nation. In the New 
Testament men are commanded without discrimination to sub- 
mit to pohtical rulers. As well might we reason from this in 
favor of passive obedience, and condemn thereupon our revolu- 
tionary fathers and all who have withstood the tyranny of mon- 
archs, as draw conclusions in favor of Slavery from the silence 
of the New Testament with regard to it, and the exhortation 
to servants to obey their masters. 

How can we suppose that Christ looked upon Slavery oth- 
er than with disapprobation ? Do we reflect on what Slavery 
was in his day ? that it was not merely of the ignorant and 
low, who were fit only to be the drudges of society, and need- 
ed the strong arm of a master to control them, but that it em- 
braced the philosopher, the poet, the accomphshed female 
with its bonds, the delicacy and splendor of whose gifts did 
not prevent their being subject to the will of a sometimes ca- 
pricious or wicked master ? And are we prepared to maintain 
that Christ approved of this, because he did not condemn it ? 
Did he not find the world teeming with wrong, and society 
laden with evil, and is his silence in any particular to be reck- 
oned in opposition to those principles of religion which he 
gave forth, as the powers that were to subdue all wrong ? 

No. The question, as a question of Right and of Relig- 
ion, seems to be very plain. Slavery is wrong. We can own 
servants only as we own wives and children. They cannot be 
a part of our property ; nor, without great injustice can they 
be treated as such. This conclusion, indeed, is not in general 
controverted. While it remains abstract and general, it is 
allowed. But when we come to apply it to our own circum- 
stances, we are perplexed with doubts, and a thousand insu- 
perable difficulties are thought to present themselves before 
us. The incapacity of people long inured to bondage, their 
reluctance to work except when compelled, our entire depen- 
dence on them for the necessary labor in our fields and houses, 
are supposed to make it necessary to continue the bondage of 



28 

the present generation. But in a few years the present gen- 
eration will be gone : and does this reason apply to the gen- 
eration that is to come ? May not the law decree the freedom 
and provide for instruction in necessary knowledge, and for 
the necessary discipline and protection, of those born after the 
present time ? May it not mitigate the condition of those now 
living, by permitting them to be instructed, by securing them 
in their families from forced separations, and from violation of 
their sacred rights ? Ought not some limit to be set to the 
freedom with which they are bought and sold? In short, 
if Slavery he wrong, ought not the removal of it to be the 
settled policy of the people among ivhom it exists! 

But while the people are too supine to act through the 
way of law, the individual need not be dead. By great kind- 
ness and thoughtfulness towards his laborers, making them 
happy and devising ever new plans for their good, struggling 
unweariedly against the difficulties and disgusts of his situa- 
tion, he may leave nothing of Slavery but its name and its 
legal disabilities, he may wholly free himself from the charge 
of oppression and be hailed by his servants as their great bene- 
factor. The duty of each of us will appear plain, in propor- 
tion to the singleness of heart with which we pursue it. Be- 
fore the steady gaze of a pure purpose, the clouds that hang 
over our path will disappear. 

Thus, my friends, I have accomplished my difficult duty of 
uttering to you, what appear to be the teachings of Religion 
on this forbidden subject. I have not spoken my own thought. 
I have not suffered myself to listen to my own wishes or fears. 
The opinion of this or that mind is nothing. Our question is 
singly this, — what is the will of God toward us in this thing ? 
Under His protection we may laugh at fear. Interest, reputa- 
tion, the excitements and prejudices of the day sink and van- 
ish ; and we seek to solve the great problem of our social con- 



29 

dition, by looking into the eternal truth of things, and the 
immutable and shining duties of Religion. Such views never 
come amiss. Even N\'hen nothing is to be done, they prepare 
us for the future, and make us satisfied to be quiet. They 
give stabiUty to our otherwise fluctuating ideas. They yield 
us confidence in ourselves. They calm all irritated feeling, 
they raise us to serene and elevated thought, and prepare us 
for sacrifices and toil. Religion is never an intruder. 

Notwithstanding this, however, I have found a strong 
motive to dissuade me from venturing on the subject, I 
have now treated, in the apprehension that the treatment of 
it might prejudice our infant church in the opinion of the 
community. Let me say therefore, that thus to shift the 
responsibility upon the church, would be wholly unjust. I 
am forced to confess, that the members of our denomination 
are in general as little favorable to the discussion of this 
great interest as those of any other. I fear there is not an 
individual in our society who would not have dissuaded all 
mention of it. They of course are not to be blamed for 
what they would not have approved. The odium, if such 
there be, belongs to me. 

I am well aware, also, that I expose myself to much mis- 
representation. To this, and to a thousand ill-natured and 
pusillanimous reproaches, to the bickering and cavils of the 
foolish and superficial, and tO the anger of the wicked, as 
well as to the disapprobation and complaint of many whom 
it is painful to offend, to all these I resigned myself when 
I began. I had come to a rugged passage in the path of 
duty. What right had I to falter or complain ? 

But to avoid, as far as possible, being misunderstood, let 
me say, in conclusion, that I am not an Abolitionist, (in 
the technical sense w^hich is given to the word) ; but that, 
on the contrary, men of that persuasion have greatly re- 
proached me for my opposition to them. But I am one of 



30 

that large and increasing body of Christians, who hold Slave- 
ry to be wrong, and are earnest for its removal. To be thus 
is not matter of choice. Thus far the spirit of Paul and of 
Jesus Christ constrains me. 

And finally, whatever may be the opinions, the hopes and 
fears, of different men, fail not to view the whole matter ha- 
bitually in the light of Religion. If you follow that light, 
you can never go astray, you can never fall into any lasting 
calamity. 



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